Talk:From the Sidelines/@comment-392210-20131002225525
I'm sorry, guys, but I did not enjoy this episode. :/ More Than Two Cents: *My main beef with this episode is that it sort of feels like a rehash of 5.04, with several characters ending up dead and then the ending being more positive. The difference of course being that the previous episode was full of hypothetical scenarios and this one featured stuff that actually happened. But, I kept reading about the deaths of the other schoolboys and thinking back on that episode. Which was just four episodes ago. *I thought the episode had a rather big level of cheesiness to it, mostly featured in James' narrations, which weren't very inspired to me. *Another problem I have with the episode was, the basic premise that was offered to us was that this episode would revolve around chains of events set off by the schoolboys, unknowingly. That's what I was led to believe. The four alternate schoolboys would suffer through mishaps that were brought upon them by the main characters. I thought that was what the episode would be about. But really the main tragedies that harmed them could only be traced back to the main kids indirectly. Nick set the school fire, Erwin and Donald (and Valentina and Andrew) were in charge of the shootout, Silvia's guy cut the brakes or whatever, Fraser killed the girls and Lyons made Alex jump. The actual mainies can't be held accountable for what happened, so really their actual actions made very little impact on the boys' lives, for the most part. Andy didn't give up on his faith because Joe told him to. Ben never even noticed Barrett, would have been better if Ben had seen him but decided to run with the girls because he couldn't go back for him without being killed. Ben didn't even seem to attend the funeral. Josh's talk with Desmond was about the latter making the former feel better. And then Josh discovered Samantha, meh. I liked all the continuity. I love that we found out who picked Fraser up. But why would Mike regret it? Did him being friends with Fraser lead to Samantha's death? Why? Doesn't feel like there should be a necessary link. And Mike was never even shown to acknowledge Fraser as the killer. I think that maybe this episode was a bit of overkill. You guys have done a fantastic job with previous episodes that featured flashes to the past of the series, its history, linking stuff we didn't previously know to stuff that had already been established, and this one was no exception. I was pleasantly surprised with the connections introduced. The girl that Alex and Josh found, the person who picked Fraser up... And as a whole I think it's original and interesting to explore the lives of people on the outskirts who were also affected by the series' major travesties. Those who failed to live, unlike the protagonists, who mostly seem to always overcome everything with nothing but tiny scars. But... I just didn't really care for it. Maybe it was that we were, after all, dealing with characters I'm not invested on. I don't know. I'm also not fond of how the entity of God is addressed in this episode... It felt like it was pushing an anti-religion agenda at several points. Anyway, I am still looking forward to the rest of the season/series, obviously. I hope this one bad review doesn't discourage or annoy you guys too much. I'm still your #1 fan.